“Me and this man have been through a lot. In the best way, he tells me about myself, which is very, very uncomfortable.” Amongst the many people who have grown to appreciate having Kyrie Irving in their life, none come close to the NBA player’s wife! Having been together for six years, Kyrie Irving and Marlene Wilkerson have become amongst the most notable of the NBA couples of the modern generation. While The Sporting News describes the Mavericks star as “more private of an individual than some of his peers,” Wilkerson has also followed the same path. She has documented various parts of her life through social media but in a limited manner.

So, without further delay, let’s dive into Kyrie Irving’s significant other and the life they’ve built together.

Who is Marlene Wilkerson?

Marlene Wilkerson, born in August 1993, spent much of her childhood in Los Angeles. She has a mixed ethnic background, with her mother being American and her father having African ancestry. Although she wasn’t able to form a close bond with her father, as she was raised by her mother as a single parent, Marlene is said to have maintained a strong connection with her aunts and uncles.

In a 2021 video on her ‘The Find Guru’ YouTube Channel, she explained “I grew up in the same house as my aunties and my uncles, because my youngest auntie’s only like five years older than me.” She added, “I’m saying this to say that I kind of was grouped in with the eight and then when my aunties and uncles started having kids, they are technically my cousins but they’re more like my nieces and nephews.”

After finishing high school, Marlene went on to study Marketing at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Unlike many NBA players who meet their future spouses while attending the same university, this wasn’t the case for Marlene and Kyrie Irving. Kyrie spent only one year in college (2010-11) at Duke University. But despite the 2,536.8 miles between them back then, we know their paths would eventually cross.

Which other sportsmen has Marlene Wilkerson dated?

As ‘Popculture’ highlighted back in November 2020, Kyrie Irving wasn’t the first sportsperson Marlene was involved with. In fact, she has previously dated Layvin Kurzawa, a renowned French footballer who won 16 domestic trophies during his tenure with the Paris Saint-Germain club.

She was also, at one point, in a relationship with Dexter Strickland, aka Baden Jaxen. While the shooting guard/point guard never made the NBA, he was once Kyrie Irving’s teammate! The duo played together during their time at St. Patrick High School.

How did Marlene Wilkerson’s and Kyrie Irving’s relationship blossom?

The future NBA couple first connected in 2018, though little is known about how their initial meeting and relationship began. Speculation about their romance surfaced in December of that year when Marlene attended the first annual Kyrie Invitational, the NBA player’s youth basketball tournament.

By September 2019, relationship rumors shifted to engagement buzz after the Daily Mail photographed the couple leaving a Chris Brown concert, with Marlene wearing a diamond ring valued at over $270,000. Any wedding details, however, remain private. Still, with Marlene once calling Kyrie “the greatest partner, the greatest husband I could ever have,” it’s safe to refer to them as husband and wife.

Who are Kyrie Irving and Marlene Wilkerson’s children?

In 2020, Marlene Wilkerson was reportedly celebrating her 27th birthday when she discovered she was pregnant. In contrast to the trend of sharing personal milestones publicly, she and Kyrie Irving kept the news private until after their baby was born. In June 2021, they shared a video titled “Our Pregnancy Journey,” where Marlene detailed their experience welcoming their first child, including clips of her maternity photoshoots and the natural water birth she had at home, laboring in a bathtub.

“Even though my pregnancy was private, just the unsolicited opinions were a little bit too much for me where I was like, ‘You know what, I don’t want to tell nobody because I’m doing something that a lot of people think is foreign but it’s something that’s natural to me, and it resonates with me and what I believe,’” said Marlene during the course of the YouTube video.

Now 3 years old, Kaire Irving has already made several appearances at his father’s games and even had his own viral ‘Interrupting the Press’ moment, much like Riley Curry and Deuce Tatum. Kaire is lucky to have an older sibling to look up to—Azurie Elizabeth Irving, Kyrie’s daughter from a previous relationship.

Kyrie and Marlene also aimed to keep details of their second pregnancy private. However, then-Nets head coach Steve Nash revealed the baby’s arrival in October 2022 while explaining Kyrie’s absence from practice. Although the couple has yet to share the name of their second son, he was spotted at a playoff game with his mother in May. In a clip shared by the Dallas Mavericks’ official Instagram, the toddler passed the ball to his father, who, in true Kyrie style, sank it from a distance.

Does Marlene Wilkerson have her own business?

According to her LinkedIn, Marlene worked as a Marketing Associate at Victoria’s Secret for over two years. A year after leaving the brand, she launched her YouTube channel, The Find Guru, in 2015. Originally created for business promotion, the channel has evolved, now boasting nearly 768,000 subscribers and featuring content ranging from beauty and fashion tips to life vlogs, self-care advice, and fitness guidance.

As Kyrie continues his NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks, Marlene supports him while raising their family and occasionally sharing glimpses of their life through her popular channel.